Ian Wheeler

Guest speaker, President of The Knitting Factory Label Group and co-owner of Partisan Records. Spent a lot of time emphasizing the importance of networking. Make friends and contacts with every person that you meet, you never know who can be of use to you down the line. In relation, Wheeler advises that one "learn to how bullshit", meaning show interest in whatever a person has to say, no matter how inane or ridiculously useless the subject may be.

Went through a very complicated negotiation deal in order to run the Brooklyn-based music label for the Knitting Factory as well as Indie Outlaw and Partisan Records. Has a fairly extensive background in business, which came to use when handling such dealings.

Notable acts on his roster are Girl Talk and Deer Tick. Showed the various interesting forms of promotion and marketing with Deer Tick, which included a custom-color and designed 12" vinyl record for one of the band's singles. Also showed their album cover, which was just the band members on a beach with a bikini-clad woman with an AK47. Admitted the cover itself had no deep meaning or significance other than being a great attention-grabber. I certainly would agree. States he attaches a sticker or card of some sort from his record label in anything he mails out, including tax returns. A very liberal, machine-gun approach to promotion.

Wheeler is also very in-tune with the emergence of the online music industry. Very aware of the imminent demise of CDs. What's more, he notes that digital booklets that come with purchased music from internet need improvement. He hasn't found a solution to this issue yet, and invited us as the student-audience to contact him if we do. I personally will keep that in mind.

"I don't hire anyone who hasn't interned for me before."

Internships were also an important subject. Wheeler described his own experiences as an intern for a record label, doing tons of pack-mule work but at the same time meeting a lot of people and musicians, as well as attending a lot of exclusive parties. Now, as an owner of three different music groups, he makes it a point to have all of his potential employees go through the same "hazing" that he did when he got his foot in the door, so to speak.

By the tail-end of his session, Wheeler advised that, regardless of what career you find yourself in, always make an effort to learn from your mistakes. You will make many of them. Don't let these keep you away from pushing on with your career and your work. Words to live by. Literally.